Hectic schedules have become a daily occurrence in my life in the past few months. College papers are due, work schedules have increased, and the children are involved with more and more activities through school and church. Add on the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas holidays that are quickly approaching. It seems my house is never clean.
I walk in the front door, and my eyes focus on the mud stains in the living room rug. I mentally remind myself to add that to my husband's "honey-do" list. I also notice that the dust on the table and shelves has gotten pretty thick. The floors need to be mopped. Dishes are overflowing from the sink. I wonder why my kids and husband can't go a couple more feet to the dishwasher. Going down the hall to the bedrooms, I catch sight of full laundry baskets. With a silent groan I realize that a mother/wife has a never-ending job. There are no off days for me.
This brings me to the topic of my discussion for this blog. Chores for children. What chores should children be responsible for? At what age should they begin certain duties? This has always been a disagreement between my oldest daughter and I. She feels I am letting my youngest get away with too much. I started my oldest doing jobs around the house at an earlier age than I started my youngest on the same jobs.
The dishes upset my oldest daughter the most. I admit that she started helping me when she was five. I would wash all the dishes and she would dry and put away the dishes that would not break. Now, she is 12 years old, so she loads and unloads ALL the dishes in the dishwasher, while my youngest washes the counters, takes out the garbage, and sweeps the floors. I am afraid my 9 year old would break too many glasses. My oldest says that my youngest is old enough to become responsible for the glass dishes.
My kids are expected to fold and put away their clothes. They were fighting while sorting their clothes, so I resorted to making them sort clothes separately. My youngest takes her clothes out first , and puts them away. Then, my oldest will put hers away. They don't always hang everything up, but I am fine with the clothes being put in the dresser drawers. I don't want to see items on the floor.
I recently added vacuuming and dusting their bedrooms to their list of chores. I have been hesitating on this task, because I don't want them ruining my vacuum cleaner. I fear they will ram it into walls or vacuum up items that don't belong in vacuum cleaners. My husband gets upset with ME when I vacuum up something by mistake.
Their final chore is to make sure all their belongings are picked up and put away every night. I am a firm believer in everything having a "place." I tell my kids that if things get put where they belong, they won't get lost. They say I am just being picky. At least I know where my shoes and hair brush are when I need them.
I get a lot of grumbling when chores are being preformed. I get annoyed, and my husband will remind me that they are kids and kids will be kids. We did a lot of complaining to our parents, and now we need to expect it from our children. I want my children to learn responsibility from their chores. I encourage them to know that people need to work together to get things done. Even cleaning the house. I want them to know they can't quit just because they don't like something. I hope they understand that hard work can create success.
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Being the youngest out of me and my sister, I have noticed looking back that me and my sister did fight constantly about chores! Our fights being over dishes a well... We used to say that one must do bottom and then one must do top. But when it was my sister's turn to do the bottom, she switched the rules, saying that whoever does the top must do the silverware too! That was the worst part about the dishes! So needless to say,. I was not too happy about the change! But, it did teach me that she would get the silverware tomorrow, so I accepted the rule change!
ReplyDeleteI think with all the chores that my mother gave us really did help us keep a nice home clean, and my sister and I still have the same techniques as we did at that age!
I am the only child to my mother, it was only me and her for the last twenty years of my life. I remember my mom asking me to clean the dishes but I was never given any other chores to do around the house. We did not live in a dirty house nor was it messy but my mom make Sundays cleaning days. I almost wish my mom gave me chores to do around the house because when college came around I was lost. I think it would have made an impact for the better. I think it is reasonable to ask children to do chores around the house such as dishes,taking out the trash, and cleaning their rooms but I wouldn't ask for much more. Allowance is a great reward and something I would give to my kids for good work.
ReplyDeleteI used to hate getting yelled at for chores so much. I still hate it. I live with my mom and want desperately to move out. I never get out girls are able to spot every little dirty thing! It's invisible to us guys. =(
ReplyDeleteI had chores when I was younger! I hated them... but as I grew up I kind of started to enjoy them again. I think that chores teach children responsiblity. When I first got my guinea pig it became my "job" to clean her every day and honestly I think that taught me how to be responsible in general.
ReplyDeleteI don't often think of the chores I had growing up in my house when I was much younger but I had to after reading your post. The things we 'had' to do per say where never really a big deal, we simply had to do them, end of story, or there were repercussions. Needless to say, we did them because there was no way in Hell our Nintendo was being taken away. Other than that, they really weren't important to me but I just made the biggest realization after reading your post. As much as I hated doing chores growing up and even doing them only for the wrong reasons (so not to be punished), they're the only reason why I meticulously clean my room and house on an everyday basis. I never realized it but these minor chores we had to do growing up were so much more important than I ever realized because they really subconsciously discipline ones everyday living conditions.
ReplyDeleteI haqte doing chores! I think its like a life curve where when your young, you love doing chores and its fun. When you start getting in to the teens, chores become a burdon and you cant stand cleaning up after others. Then you hit about 25,26 and you realize thats it just a way of life and if you dont clean up who will. I am living alone now so cleaning up is always put second to anything els in life but i do manage to atleast put dishes in the dish washer. My sister is going through a hard time because she is now 23, still living with my parents and is forced to do dishes. She feels that since its on the three of them that everyone should clean up behind themselves. My parents told her to GET OUT!! lol pretty funny to me, its like either do the dishes or find your own place lol. In the end, she's still there.
ReplyDeleteMy parents still try to make me do chores, namely take out the trash. I do it sometimes, but when my father wakes me up at 6am when I went to bed at 4am to do it, and hes unemployed and has nothing to do all day, thats where I draw a line....
ReplyDeleteBane
I really used to hate doing any chore when I was younger. It was a constant fight between my parents and I. As much as I had argued every time I had to do a chore, now I will admit that it probably did help prepare me for the future a little- not just when it comes to cleaning but I think it teaches kids to be more independent and to get things done on their own.
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